Ingress, Google’s Niantic Project, is a huge virtual reality MMORPG now in closed Play Store beta

It’s not everyday that we see Google involved in developing mobile games, but it looks like the Search giant is interested in helping out with the Niantic Project. Or the Ingress game:

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What is the Niantic Project? Is this just a game? An Investigation Board (http://www.nianticproject.com) filled with cryptic clues and secret codes awaits. The story evolves everyday. Powerful secrets and game tech are there to be unlocked.

Ingress is actually the name of the game that’s already available for download from the Play Store free of charge, as long as you have a proper invite.

We’re looking at a virtual reality-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that will be played on Android devices and will require users to join one of the two camps, “The Enlightened” or “The Ressistance:”

“The Enlightened” seek to embrace the power that this energy may bestow upon us. “The Resistance” struggle to defend, and protect what’s left of our humanity.

Once that’s done, you’ll have to look around town for clues and quests to discover the purpose of “a mysterious energy” that has been recently unearthed by scientists in Europe – yes, the game will actually have you walk around town to accomplish local goals.

You’ll have to join forces with other players, stay in touch, find objects and “deploy tech to capture territory,” all from your Android device, hence the virtual reality features.

Which side will you choose? In order to get invitations for the beta, you’ll actually have to go to Ingress.com and ask for one. A public launch is yet to be announced. But the good news is that the game will work on devices running Android 2.3 or later and require just 22MB of storage. So why not try it out?